Excellence in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award

Dr. Richard Castillo has demonstrated outstanding service, education, and scholarly contributions towards advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). He has achieved national and international recognition for his work and has had to overcome several barriers as a member of an underrepresented group. Dr. Castillo has been a member of the Faculty Senate’s Prevention of Sexual Violence Subcommittee, the Faculty Council’s Special Committee on DEI, the Actionable Education Initiative’s (AEI) Racism/Anti-Racism Subcommittee, and the SOM Latina/o/x Faculty Affinity Group. He was a Small-Group Facilitator for a DEI group for M1 students, participated on three facilitator teams for the focus groups, has served as panelist/speaker for multiple DEI events, and is a member of his department’s DEI committee. He has been invaluable for Emory’s Diversity and Inclusion Week serving as co-moderator for two sessions, chair of the speaker development committee, and co-chair for the planning committee.

Dr. Castillo has outstanding national/international reputation in DEI. He is the founding chair for the Hispanic and Latin-X Medical Physics Affinity Subcommittee within the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)—a group to provide mentorship, networking, and outreach. He has mentored several underrepresented trainees/junior faculty and co-founded the Medical Physics Hispanic Community Outreach and Mentorship program. He is the chair of the AAPM’s Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee, and the Vice Chair for the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (EDIC). Dr. Castillo has also coauthored multiple papers on topics such as sexual discrimination and DEI. Due to his efforts in DEI, he was featured in the Spotlight Recognition in the AAPM Newsletter.

Dr. Monica Parker has made significant contributions to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in the Emory community, Atlanta, the state of Georgia and beyond. She is a leader in advocacy and education at the national level who has had tremendous impact on patients, colleagues, and trainees. Her work has led to national changes to the way vulnerable populations are introduced and included in research. Dr. Parker was appointed as the leader of not only the Minority Engagement Core of the Aging & Disability Resource Connection initiative, but also the leadership of the Outreach, Recruitment, and Education Core as well. Dr Parker also has extensive committee service. She has served on 9 national and 7 institutional committees including the NIA-NIH Recruiting Older Adults into Research Materials Review Committee (2013-present), “Galaxy” National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Patient and Caregiver Research Network – PCORI Diversity Committee (2025), Leaders engaged in Alzheimer’s Disease Coalition (2018-present), Advisory Group on Risk Evidence Education for Dementia (AGREED) (2019-present) for which she serves as Co-Chair of the Diversity Training Subcommittee, and the Inclusive Research Initiative Advisory Board Global Alzheimer’s Platform (2022-present). Dr Parker has also received 9 service awards inclusive of the 2013 Healthcare Campion from the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority Board of Trustees, the 2014 Out of the Shadows honor for research from the Women Against Alzheimer’s/USAgainst Alzheimer’s, and the 2015 Key to a Cure Award at the Heroes, Saints and Legends event held by the Wesley Woods Foundation. Most recently, Dr. Parker was awarded the 2021 Yellow Rose Award from the Georgia Women’s Legislative Caucus.